Candy Bomber

Title: Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot"

Author: Michael O. Tunnell

Pages: 120

Genre: Children's Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: After World War II, Germany was divided between the East (Russia) and the West (US & Britain).  Berlin is located in East Germany and was also divided.  For nearly a year, Russia blockaded the United States and other western powers from supplying Western Berlin in the hopes that the US would abandon West Berlin.  Instead, the US and their allies provided support and supplies to the people of West Berlin by airplane.  It was an immense undertaking by the Western Allies who made over 200,000 flights delivering more than 4700 tons of food and supplies during the blockade. As all supplies were brought by air, candy and sweets were in very short supply as they are not high on the necessity list.  US Air Force Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen started dropping chocolate and candy from his plane in little parachutes over the city to the great excitement of the children and other residents of the city.

My Review: I read this book to Ada and Kate.  Kate's interest didn't last too long (the book is written for a target audience of 4-7 grades), but Ada seemed to enjoy it.  It's a great story of somebody (from Salt Lake City) who saw a need and went hard to work fulfilling it.